KOHAT, July 3: Four Al Qaeda men and two members of law-enforcement agencies were killed and two policemen seriously injured in an encounter near the Jarma bridge in the south of here on Wednesday.

The policeman killed in the encounter has been identified as constable Imran Khan Afridi. The name of an army havaldar killed in the encounter is being kept secret. The injured have been identified as ASI Silahuddin Khan and constable Akhtar Nawaz. Imran Khan Afridi was later buried in his native village in Darra Adamkhel with full police honours.

The four Al Qaeda men of Chechen origin were coming from the tribal area of Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, near the Afghan border. Their bodies had been shifted to Peshawar for identification and further investigations by a joint team of Inter Services Intelligence and FBI.

A senior military official, while talking to Dawn on the scene, said that the Al Qaeda men were Chechens and probably on a terrorist mission in Kohat or Peshawar. He supported his claim by saying “why would a person in search for a place to hide carry arms and ammunition in such a big quantity?”

He said that the vehicle, a white Hiace, in which the terrorists were travelling, had crossed five strictly-guarded checkpoints between Kohat and Miranshah. The vehicle was full with ammunition including hand-grenades and other sophisticated weapons.

The officials recovered four Kalashnikovs, one machine-gun, two pistols, 15 hand-grenades and one rocket launcher from the vehicle.

The army official said they had information that the Al Qaeda suspects would try to cross into Kohat. He could not give a satisfactory answer when asked if they had the knowledge about the whereabouts of the terrorists, then why they were not intercepted outside Kohat and allowed a safe passage into the congested area of the district.

The SHO of the Lachi police station said that the Al Qaeda men raised slogans of Allah-o- Akbar and opened fire. They lobbed five hand-grenades at the raiding party from inside the vehicle, one of which exploded when the police back-up force reached the scene. All the four Al Qaeda men were killed in their seats.

A team of army officials reached Kohat after receiving the reports of the encounter and took control of the situation and cordoned off the whole area.

The SSP Kohat, Usman Zikria, told Dawn that he had instructions from the highest level to hand over the investigations to the military authorities and that the interior ministry or the ISPR would release the details of the incident to the press in Islamabad.

He also cancelled a press conference at the eleventh hour which was called in his office to give details to the media.